Color is a central tool for describing the world around us, for artists and scientists alike

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A color blind painter and a physicist with
expertise on the “color force” that binds together
particles called quarks will be among the presenters at
Buffalo’s next Science & Art Cabaret.

The theme of the Oct. 4 event — you guessed it
— is color.

Like past cabarets, this one will feature a series of
entertaining, intellectually provocative talks by artists and
scientists on a common topic.

The evening of conversation — free and open to the public
— will take place Wednesday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m. at The 9th Ward
at Babeville, 341 Delaware Ave., Buffalo.

There will be a cash bar.

“Color” is the first cabaret of the 2017-18 season.
Invited speakers will approach the theme from numerous directions
— the quantum reality of color, the invention of a new and
pure color, the educational missteps of teaching color, and the
reality of painting in riotous and dynamic color while being color
blind.

The line-up:

Bruce Adams, SUNY Buffalo State lecturer and a
conceptually-based figurative painter who references various
painting styles, will speak on “How You Were Taught Color
Wrong.”

Gary Nickard, University at Buffalo clinical associate
professor of art and a conceptual artist committed to exploring the
interstices between visual art and literature while engaging such
diverse topics as science, philosophy, psychoanalysis and various
historical knowledge systems, will speak on Yves Klein, a
French artist known for his work in post-World War II Europe.

Salvatore Rappoccio, UB associate professor of physics
and an expert on particle detectors and subatomic and elementary
particles, such as protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, neutrinos,
muons and exotic particles, will speak on “Quarks, Color,
and Flavor.”

A.J. Fries, a Buffalo-born painter who is color blind
and has been called one of Western New York’s most serious,
developed and dedicated artists, will be interviewed “On
Painting and Color” by John Massier, visual arts curator
at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center.

The event is presented by Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center,
the Buffalo Museum of Science, the Technē Institute for Arts
and Emerging Technologies at UB, and the UB College of Arts and
Sciences.

The Science & Art Cabaret was established in the fall of
2009 as an ongoing conversation about endless topics across all
disciplines. The series’ underlying premise is that
intellectual pursuits that appear distinct actually cross paths far
more often than presumed and share spheres of interest and
meaning.

“We could talk about color for endless days,”
Massier says, “even if we consider it only within the scheme
of work by one painter — say, Barnett Newman or Monet or Sol
LeWitt. How color works with and against other colors, as well as
the emotions it both represents and evokes.”

UB Professor of Physics Will Kinney, cabaret co-organizer, adds,
“Likewise, color — the wavelength of electromagnetic
waves — is a central tool in science: the color of an object
gives us a wealth of information about its properties. Color
indicates temperature, composition, velocity, distance. Color
analysis (or spectroscopy) is a tool that spans a broad range of
scientific disciplines, from archaeology to astronomy.

“But color shows up in other ways as well, in particular
as a metaphor for fundamental processes that we would otherwise
find it difficult to imagine. The ‘color force’ binding
quarks is such an example, leading to the field of physics called
‘Quantum Chromodynamics.’”